Medics started repairing the leg of Pfc. Ryan Halpin, 4th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, after an attack by mock Afghan forces at joint combat outpost Turani during force on force training at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La. The attack started late Friday night. By 2 a.m. Saturday, the forward aid station Halpin was treated at also was attacked. About 10 soldiers and medics at the station “died,” including Halpin.

First Lt. Stacey Suttles, senior medical provider, “died” after an attack by mock Afghan forces at a forward aid station at joint combat outpost Turani between midnight and 2 a.m. Saturday. At least 200 of the squadron’s 550 soldiers were “killed” during the two-day attack, which was part of a six-day force on force training exercise the brigade is conducting at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La. Training started May 16 and will wrap up May 21.

Sgt. Dustin Snowdy, senior line medic for Charlie Company, 4th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, and other soldiers in the forward aid station at joint combat outpost Turani “died” after an attack by mock Afghan forces. At least 200 of the squadron’s 550 soldiers were “killed” during the two-day attack, which was part of a six-day force on force training exercise the brigade is conducting at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La. Training started May 16 and will wrap up May 21.

All of the 4th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, soldiers in the forward aid station at joint combat outpost Turani “died” after an attack by mock Afghan forces. At least 200 of the squadron’s 550 soldiers were “killed” during the two-day attack, which was part of a six-day force-on-force training exercise the brigade is conducting at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La. Training started May 16 and will wrap up May 21.

Spc. Michael Mazock, for 4th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, “died” after an attack by mock Afghan forces at aforward aid station at joint combat outpost Turani between midnight and 2 a.m. Saturday. (His camelback water bottle thing started leaking, which is what is behind his head).At least 200 of the squadron’s 550 soldiers were “killed” during the two-day attack, which was part of a six-day force on force training exercise the brigade is conducting at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La. Training started May 16 and will wrap up May 21.

Mock attacks test medics’ trauma skills

Medics started repairing the leg of Pfc. Ryan Halpin, 4th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, after an attack by mock Afghan forces at joint combat outpost Turani during force on force training at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La. The attack started late Friday night. By 2 a.m. Saturday, the forward aid station Halpin was treated at also was attacked. About 10 soldiers and medics at the station “died,” including Halpin.

First Lt. Stacey Suttles, senior medical provider, “died” after an attack by mock Afghan forces at a forward aid station at joint combat outpost Turani between midnight and 2 a.m. Saturday. At least 200 of the squadron’s 550 soldiers were “killed” during the two-day attack, which was part of a six-day force on force training exercise the brigade is conducting at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La. Training started May 16 and will wrap up May 21.

Sgt. Dustin Snowdy, senior line medic for Charlie Company, 4th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, and other soldiers in the forward aid station at joint combat outpost Turani “died” after an attack by mock Afghan forces. At least 200 of the squadron’s 550 soldiers were “killed” during the two-day attack, which was part of a six-day force on force training exercise the brigade is conducting at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La. Training started May 16 and will wrap up May 21.

All of the 4th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, soldiers in the forward aid station at joint combat outpost Turani “died” after an attack by mock Afghan forces. At least 200 of the squadron’s 550 soldiers were “killed” during the two-day attack, which was part of a six-day force-on-force training exercise the brigade is conducting at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La. Training started May 16 and will wrap up May 21.

Spc. Michael Mazock, for 4th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, “died” after an attack by mock Afghan forces at aforward aid station at joint combat outpost Turani between midnight and 2 a.m. Saturday. (His camelback water bottle thing started leaking, which is what is behind his head).At least 200 of the squadron’s 550 soldiers were “killed” during the two-day attack, which was part of a six-day force on force training exercise the brigade is conducting at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La. Training started May 16 and will wrap up May 21.

“(For) a lot of the newer soldiers, it doesn’t really matter what trauma background they’ve had. The wounds and casualties you see during war are completely different than what you would see stateside,” Snowdy said.

“It’s also extremely hard to replicate a lot of trauma-type scenarios unless we’re in this type of environment — that way you can feel the fatigue, you know exactly what it takes to get people in and out of vehicles…”

Snowdy and the medics in his squadron were tested early Saturday at their forward aid station after an attack by enemy forces at mock Combat Outpost Turani.

By 2 a.m. Saturday, about 200 of the squadron’s 550 soldiers and medics, including Snowdy, were “killed” during the late-night attack.

The exercise is part of a six-day force-on-force training exercise, which ends Tuesday, that the brigade is conducting in preparation for a deployment to Afghanistan this summer.

“There are certain things you can’t replicate in a combined training center and that’s the real horror of combat,” said Maj. John Sandler, 4th Squadron’s operations officer.

Despite the “heartache” of medical training’s inability to be 100 percent realistic, Snowdy said the training they receive is good.

“The training ... is repeated so often that when you have someone sitting in front of you with a certain injury, it’s more or less second-nature on how to treat it,” he said. “There’s not a whole lot of thought process behind it. ... We drill so often that we don’t really think about it. We just do it.”

Army medics treat a wide range of patients, from local, national and coalition forces to Afghan locals who were injured as a direct result of U.S. forces.

“We’ll treat them if they’re in danger of losing their life, a limb or their eyesight,” he said.

Snowdy said he’s seen numerous adult casualties and treated children as young as 1.

“We don’t get a lot of training on pediatrics,” he said. “I probably remember every pediatric intervention I had to do. That’s probably the hardest thing, seeing kids coming to the aid station and children (who) are affected by everything.”

Snowdy, who deployed to Baghdad, Iraq, for 15 months in 2006 and to Afghanistan in 2010, said JRTC training gives newer soldiers a realistic look at treating combat wounds.

“Training at Fort Hood is good, but it’s not the real thing,” he said. “Nothing will completely, 100 percent prepare you for the real thing, but they can make it as close as possible.”

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